WAKEFIELD— Preliminary results show a very close race for the three seats available in the Carroll County state representative District 5 race, with one Democrat and two Republican candidates coming out ahead.

WMUR reported Democrat Tom Lavender had 23 percent of the vote in the communities of Brookfield, Effingham, Ossipee and Wakefield, with Republicans at the same point – Harry Merrow with 28 percent, Bill Nelson with 27 percent and J. Lisbeth Olimpio with 22 percent.

On the Republican side candidates Merrow, of Ossipee, and Nelson, of Brookfield appeared to be the top contenders for the three seats in the district as well. In Wakefield, Lavender took 1,065 votes, Merrow had 1,018, Nelson had 1,192 and Olimpio had 1,019.

Merrow, 74, is a retired engineer and attended UNH after leaving the U.S. Air Force. After finishing his eighth year as a state representative, Merrow said he is running because he cares about the state. He previously told Foster’s he “(hopes to) give a little back” and wishes to “correct” the state government.

Nelson, a Brookfield selectman, considers himself fairly conservative on social and fiscal issues. He said he is a “passionate advocate and defender of the dignity of all human life” will “champion” legislation that fights discrimination, including “defend(ing) the unborn.”

Lavender, 72, of Brookfield, is retired from Liberty Mutual and is president of the Wakefield Lions Club. He said he is running to “try to help counter the Legislature’s inept performance” and seeks to “bring sanity.” Asked previously for his vision of the future, Lavender said, “a Legislature that focuses on education improvement, economic issues, health issues rather than the past session of expanding gun laws, fighting gays and reducing essential services.”

Olimpio, 85,of Wakefield, has lived in town since 1968 and works in real estate while also chairing the Greater Wakefield Resource Center and serving as a member of the Wakefield School Board and Budget Committee. She said she is running to keep the government more conservatively controlled. She is looking for “less waste” and “attention to basics” in the government, stating her philosophy is to “(deal) with the average citizen in a more direct way.”